Choices

Ronald Miller

Acts of the Holy Spirit • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

Genesis 13

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Play the video of the “would you rather”.

Choices. In a poem by

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I chose the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference.”

These immortal words by Robert Frost in his poem The Road Less Traveled could have been pulled straight from Genesis 13. In this chapter, we have two men and a fork in the road. Where before these two men had traveled together down a long and dusty road, they now choose to take separate and different paths. One chose the well traveled road to Vanity Fair. The other went to a lonely countryside. The first ends up losing his possessions and family. The other gains blessing and honor. What was the difference? It was all in the roads they chose to travel.

This is exactly what our passage is all about.

Some choices we are because of circumstances and some are already made for him...

Lot and Abraham was forced to make a deccision. Genesis 13:6-7

Genesis 13:6–7 AMP

6 Now the land was not able to nourish and support them so they could dwell together, for their possessions were too great for them to live together. 7 And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdsmen of Lot’s cattle. And the Canaanite and the Perizzite were dwelling then in the land [making fodder more difficult to obtain].

Many of our decisions or choices can be because of circumstances but there are other choices we dont have to debate on…Genesis 3:1-4

Genesis 3:1–4 (LEB)

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God indeed say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat,

3 but from the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, God said, ‘You shall not eat from it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die’.”

4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You shall not surely die.

Eve was made to make a decision which was already made by God. There are many choices in our lives we dont have to make because the decision or choice has already been made for us…by God!

We choose by what we see!

1 Samuel 16:1–7 (AMP)

1 THE LORD said to Samuel, How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided for Myself a king among his sons.

2 Samuel said, How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me. And the Lord said, Take a heifer with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.

3 And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for Me the one I name to you.

4 And Samuel did what the Lord said, and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming and said, Have you come peaceably?

5 And he said, Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and called them to the sacrifice.

6 When they had come, he looked on Eliab [the eldest son] and said, Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him.

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, Look not on his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.

The Bible says that Lot, in Genesis 13:10-11

Genesis 13:10–11 AMP

10 And Lot looked and saw that everywhere the Jordan Valley was well watered. Before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, [it was all] like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar. 11 Then Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley and [he] traveled east. So they separated.

This is where many of us find ourselves…we make many of our choices from what we see and what looks ok…for the moment. Man’s fall is always attached to that. Listen to what is being said in Genesis 3: 1-10

Genesis 3:6–7 AMP

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good (suitable, pleasant) for food and that it was delightful to look at, and a tree to be desired in order to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she gave some also to her husband, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves apronlike girdles.

When we choose, how do we choose?

Trusting God

Let him interpret the situation for you.

I thought April 1 came early when I saw the whole escapade between Will Smith and Chris Rock! What a fiasco! But we know that Social Media is going to take this story apart. And so we, like many people would have maybe have our own interpretation and so did I…we will be faced with many situations in our life where our interpretation is needed....our interpretation can lead to either blessing or curses.

How do we ensure to make good choices:

Genesis 13:18 (NIrV)

18 So Abram moved his tents. He went to live near the large trees of Mamre at Hebron. There he built an altar to honor the Lord.

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

When we honor God with our lives, living sacrificial lives, we are able to dicern what is the will of God, we are able to discern what is accapetable and perfect and make good decisions!

When we choose like Abraham see the consequences:

Genesis 13:14–17 (AMP)

14 The Lord said to Abram after Lot had left him, Lift up now your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward;

15 For all the land which you see I will give to you and to your posterity forever. (Genesis 13:15

Genesis 13:15 (NLT)

15 I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants as a permanent possession.

16 And I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth, so that if a man could count the dust of the earth, then could your descendants also be counted.

17 Arise, walk through the land, the length of it and the breadth of it, for I will give it to you.

Can we continue to make wise decisions?

We understand that we will make mistakes and make bad decisions but what did Abraham do after this episode? Genesis 13:18

Genesis 13:18 (NIrV)

18 So Abram moved his tents. He went to live near the large trees of Mamre at Hebron. There he built an altar to honor the Lord.

Paul says it like this: Romans 12:1-2

Romans 12:1–2 The Message

1 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2 Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Romans 12:1–2 NCV

1 So brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him. Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to him, which is the spiritual way for you to worship. 2 Do not be shaped by this world; instead be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you; you will know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect.

Listen to that…you honor God, you live lives of sacrifice and this is what God does;